My Garden Blog: A website to document the challenge of growing a variety of perennials in a northern Canadian climate. I post plenty of pictures of my gardening projects and welcome comments. La Ronge, Saskatchewan is in Zone 1b (USDA zone 2a), sitting on the Canadian shield at 55° 06' N latitude, 105° 16' W longitude.

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Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Berry Picking With a New Camera

My new camera and I went picking lingonberries (dry ground cranberries) this afternoon. The berry picking was occasionally interrupted by attempts to capture the beauty of nature with the camera I had been wanting since last spring. Dear resident-lawnmower-man picked up my new Canon G9 on sale in Saskatoon last week. However, he forgot to buy a memory card, so I can only take six pictures at a time. Tragedy!

Gentiana septemfida, looking beautiful for my new camera:I noticed that the wild blueberries seem finished for the season, unless some pickers just cleaned out the patch I looked at. Most plants have only a few shrivelling berries clinging to their stems. I am quite fortunate in that several edible wild berries can be found within 100 feet of our property, as there is undeveloped boreal forest right behind our house.

I picked 3 cups of lingonberries in 45 minutes. Assuming that wild berries are fabulous for your health, the berry cheesecake I made tonight should be nearly medicinal.I found yet another berry behind our property this afternoon. It is known as a highbush cranberry (Viburnum trilobum), though is technically not related to cranberries in any way. You can distinguish the foliage from the three points on the leaves, just as the botanical name indicates. The shrubs I found were about three feet tall. The berries are very juicy and flavourful, though they have a central seed that you'd likely spit out. I can imagine that these would make a nice jelly.

Highbush cranberry:

Some perennials in bloom right now:

The raised beds -- a beautiful project to replace the lawn and keep me busy. I made my bulb orders this past week and I look forward to planting them as soon as they arrive.a

So you got a G9 as well! I like mine, despite a few limitations. Can't have EVERYTHING in a small package I guess. 6x optical zoom doesn't always cut it when you want it to. Too bad about the puny memory card! I have a 4 GB card. I've never filled it yet but nice to know I have room if I need it, for videos etc.